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Thursday, September 8, 2011

How Much Should A Race Cost?

A conversation with a client this morning.

Client: I heard you're into running.

Me: Yeah, I do a little running now and then.

Client: That's good, I used to run quite a while back.

Me: Cool, not running anymore?

Client: No la, races these days are too expensive.

Which brings me to my question for today. Are races really on the expensive side these days? I don't know, I'm in two minds about this. Yes, I do think races are priced pretty steep these days but then, as a person who comes from an advertising background and have been involved in organizing events, the cost to organize a race with an average number of participants ranging from anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 people doesn't come cheap. The logistics involved can be pretty phenomenal at times.

Besides, in my humble opinion, no one forced me to pay the exorbitant race fees anyway. I did that on my own free will cos I relish the opportunity to run with countless other runners. Training runs on your own are one thing, but running with a host of people is a total different feel altogether. It's where you put all that training to the test. So yeah, though I do think that races these days are on the high side, I will still pay to take part. Of course, next year, I'll only take part in select few races because of the cost involved.

The conversation with my client went on to the point of him saying that all the stuff are sponsored anyway so why do we have to pay so much. Back in the old days, races were only RM6-RM10. The key word here is 'back in the old days'. Heck, these days, Chinese tea alone cost RM0.60 compared to when it cost only RM0.20 'back in the old days'. You really shouldn't compare the cost of races from back then with now. Everything has gone up in price, so it's only natural that the cost of races would go up as well.

Like I said, I'm in two minds about this. With the cost of taking part in a race being on the steep side, it might just turn away lots of would be runners from taking up the sport, which would be a sad thing cos we need more healthy people in this country. Maybe the bigger corporations that sponsor these runs could look in subsidizing these races a little more. I know they already do, but go a little further to encourage more people to take up the sport without being turned off by the cost.

So, what do you think? Are races just too expensively priced these days? What would you think a reasonable cost for a race should be?

Even here in the Philippines, it's become very expensive to join races. When I started running in 2003, it only cost 22RM to run a 10k, now it's already 105RM. I'll just run in my neighborhood, at least it's free!